US President Joe Biden has decided to block the foreign takeover of United States Steel Corporation (US Steel) by Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel. Applauding this decision, US-based mining and steel company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has announced that it is ready to acquire and invest in some of US Steel’s assets to protect union jobs. A response from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is awaited regarding potential threats from the US Steel acquisition by Nippon Steel.
Cleveland-Cliffs’ initial offer at $7.3 billion to acquire US Steel was rejected last year, as SteelOrbis previously reported.
“After decades of unfair trade practices causing harm to American steel companies and union jobs, it is no surprise to us that the United Steelworkers union (USW) adamantly opposes any transaction involving Nippon Steel, a company with an extensive track-record of injurious trade practices. The last-minute threats by US Steel to shut down integrated steelmaking production, fire union workers, and move their headquarters from Pittsburgh if their deal does not close is just a pathetic blackmail attempt on the US government and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. By taking immediate action, our government is showing that this type of shameless behavior will never be tolerated,” Lourenco Goncalves, CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, said.